§ 34.001.No Execution on Dormant Judgment

The dormancy rule, and it is the deadline every judgment creditor has to diary.

If a writ of execution is not issued within 10 years after the rendition of a judgment of a court of record or a justice court, the judgment is dormant and execution may not be issued on it unless it is revived.

Dormancy is not expiry. The judgment survives; what stops is the ability to enforce it, and revival restores that.

Subsection (b) applies the same period between writs. Where a first writ issues in time but a second is not issued within 10 years after issuance of the first, the judgment becomes dormant — and a second writ may be issued at any time within 10 years after issuance of the first.

So the clock resets with each writ, and it runs from issuance rather than from return or from any levy.

That is a generous rule for a diligent creditor. A judgment can be kept alive indefinitely by issuing a writ once a decade, whether or not anything is collected.

And an unforgiving one for an inattentive one. A creditor who lets eleven years pass has two years to revive under the judgments chapter, and after that the judgment is unenforceable.

Subsection (c) removes child support from all of this: the section does not apply to a judgment for child support under the Family Code.

Child support judgments therefore do not go dormant, which is the same treatment that obligation receives throughout this code.